Jackals: Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying

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Well, the game is based on OpenQuest, which is an OGL product. If they want to make an OpenQuest game, they have to use the OGL.

To be fair, they’re hardly the first “No Open Content” people out there. If they’re not making any system additions, and the only new stuff is their setting, it makes a lot more sense to say ”No Open Content” then to list three paragraphs of proprietary content.
 
Well, the game is based on OpenQuest, which is an OGL product. If they want to make an OpenQuest game, they have to use the OGL.

To be fair, they’re hardly the first “No Open Content” people out there. If they’re not making any system additions, and the only new stuff is their setting, it makes a lot more sense to say ”No Open Content” then to list three paragraphs of proprietary content.
That’s the way I feel about it though I admit I don’t particularly care one way or the other for the OGL.
 
But in practice it sure sesms like they are making system additions, so it's all theoretical at this point. It's just that those aren't OGL.
 
I'm fairly nonplussed by their OGL/Non-OGL stance seeing as how they seem to want to reap all of the benefits of using Open Content themselves. I'm glad I came here to see if anybody else was having trouble logging into the Osprey Website. Couple the OGL thing with the fact that they don't even throw in a free PDF with a dead-tree book (a 25% discount is pretty meh) and you can color me unimpressed.
 
I'm fairly nonplussed by their OGL/Non-OGL stance seeing as how they seem to want to reap all of the benefits of using Open Content themselves. I'm glad I came here to see if anybody else was having trouble logging into the Osprey Website. Couple the OGL thing with the fact that they don't even throw in a free PDF with a dead-tree book (a 25% discount is pretty meh) and you can color me unimpressed.
Yeah I don’t care much about the OGL but the pricey PDF is annoying. MW (or Delta Green) will likely continue being my favorite but I think there is a definite play for a high quality, supported BRP lite game. I hope it does well!
 
Yeah I don’t care much about the OGL but the pricey PDF is annoying. MW (or Delta Green) will likely continue being my favorite but I think there is a definite play for a high quality, supported BRP lite game. I hope it does well!
No to derail too much, but I just got my backer copy of OpenQuest 3rd ed. today from Newt Newport Newt Newport and it looks great from what I've read so far.
 
Just a counter point, but in Osprey's Romance of the Perilous Land, all rules, tables and house rules are stated as open content. The fiction, writing and stuff about the Perilous Land is copyright of the author. So not sure why one is open content and not the other.
 
Just a counter point, but in Osprey's Romance of the Perilous Land, all rules, tables and house rules are stated as open content. The fiction, writing and stuff about the Perilous Land is copyright of the author. So not sure why one is open content and not the other.
I suspect Osprey is leaving these things up to the individual authors. The high degree of variation in systems between the games in their RPG and with different authors and illustrators for each one suggests the company isn't exerting an overarching influence over it but is just publishing the work their authors produce. It's kind of refreshing.
 
I finally read through my copy of Jackals this week. There's a fair amount to like about the game, but there are also elements that, frankly, I don't quite understand, and some design choices that seem odd or mistaken to me. P PrivateEye has done a good job of sketching out the system in earlier posts in this thread, so I'm only going to focus on particular issues. I have some interest in running the game, or adapting parts of it to another campaign, so I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions--especially if people can clarify rules or procedures for me. It may seem odd to ask here, but Osprey's Forums seem to focus on their military history books; I couldn't find any threads or posts about Jackals there.

One thing that confuses me a bit are how the rites (i.e. spells) of the hekas (alchemists/sorcerers) work. They don't cast spells, as such, but produce powders, items, etc. with magical powers, which they then deploy. But the rules for rites seem mainly aimed at more traditional approaches to magic-spells you cast that have a duration, etc.--and so it isn't clear how the hekas' rites work.

Take for example their first rite, Powder of Ibn al-Hanef. Here it's clear that the magician, at a cost of 3 Devotion points (i.e. magic points) makes 1D4+1 doses of this powder., presumably in advance and out of combat. The Devotion points are 'reserved' into the powder, and the hekas will not be able to regenerate them until the powder is used, or the caster dismisses the rite. It's also fairly clear what the powder does; it "forces incorporeal spirits into the mortal realm for the duration, which allows the ritualist and their allies to see and harm them with physical weapons. Mechanically, this negates any Protection spirits might possess, as well as rendering them visible. The hekas throws the powder as a ranged attack, up to 3 yards, at a cost of 1 action and 2 clash points. So far so good, but there are some matters left unaddressed in the description:
  • Most importantly, how long does the spirit struck by the powder remain visible? There is clearly some interval, since the description of the rite's effect mentions it, and if the spirit 'saves' versus the spell (so to speak) it lasts only half as long. But how long is it?
  • Can anybody throw the powder, or does it have to be hekas who created it? The fact that it takes both an action and clash points to make the throw suggests the latter, since the clash point loss is said elsewhere to represent the difficulty of concentrating on ritual and the physical world at the same time. But the rite's description is not clear and does not mention that the hekas needs to do anything except throw the powder.
  • How much do the components for the powder cost and are they hard to obtain? The rite description speaks of "lead powders and other esoteric ingredients" but its not clear how much of this powder a hekas could manufacture, or at what cost. The equipment section lists only 'ritualist gear' costing 150 shekels, but this is the same for all magicians, and other types of magic-users will not be using up their 'gear' the way that hekas do.
More generally, since hekas are creating magical objects, how large and elaborate a laboratory do they need to accomplish their goals? How long do the procedures take? Is this something you can do out on an adventure, before entering into the place of danger (rather like putting on armor before descending into the dungeon) or are better facilities and longer periods of time needed?
 
Corruption plays a pretty big role in Jackals. It basically means movement towards 'the Dark side' so to speak, Chaos and evil. You can accumulate corruption points through various immoral or wrong actions, from tainted things or places, and so on. Gaining corruption can bring knowledge of Chaotic magic (though using this will increase corruption further) but it also has effects on the character's mind and body. Generally, these are pretty negative. The mental ones make pcs more likely to fail or botch certain skill rolls, and when they do, the gm takes over their character temporarily and makes them act in accordance with the mental flaw. Physical corruption is more patent--things like pus-filled buboes growing on the character. Some of these physical corruptions are advantageous--one adds 1D6+1 to Strength, for instance--but others are quite negative, like Flesh to Salt, which increases all damage taken by 3. Characters can shed corruption by engaging in atonement, once per season (i.e. every two adventures, in practice), which will require travel to an appropriate site and (usually) the expenditure of time and money. But the effects of corruption linger 2D6 or 3D6+6 months after atonement, for mental and physical corruption respectively, and if the character ever regains corruption points to the threshold that inflicted the result to begin with, the effects become permanent.

There are some vague or contradictory spots in the corruption rules, but my main issues with them are more general. First, the whole mechanism and the ideas behind it seem, well, a little off for the setting and the stories that are supposed to inspire it. They would be fine in WFRP, or something like that. But the idea that there is a strong battle between Law and Chaos and that Chaos is constantly waiting to corrupt individuals doesn't seem to fit well with the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, or even the earlier books of the Bible that Jackals notes as inspiration. Heroic characters can certainly get themselves in hot water with divinities in the polytheistic stories, but those gods don't divide up neatly into Law vs. Chaos. Gilgamesh's problem is with Ishtar, not some Chaos spirit, and Greek heroes are typically patronized by some Olympian while being opposed by another. And the Jackals' universe seems too dualistic for the Early Hebrew material; Hebrew heroes may offend God and fall into sin, but they aren't corrupted by the Dark Side, so to speak.

This issue carries over into the list of actions that will gain characters corruption points. They include things like banditry, telling a falsehood to a lawful being, theft from lawful sources, and violence against or murdering a lawful being. The problem here is that in societies like Homeric Greece, heroes do these sorts of things all the time (well, maybe not murder, if we distinguish that as a special type of killing). Where would Odysseus be without the ability to lie? And various Homeric heroes are constantly raiding neighboring communities, killing those who oppose them, and carrying off cattle and goods. One would expect a similar ethos from the Trauj, the not-Bedouin of the setting, given the content of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and epics. But any character that used Odysseus or Achilles as role-models would soon be in the depths of corruption in this game.

It is true that the corruption rules have some cultural specificity that make them apply most to the Luathi (the not-Hebrews). One effect of increasing corruption is that it cuts off some types of magic-users from their powers. This happens earliest for Luathi priests of Alwain (not-Jehovah), but soon afterward for Trauj berserks and a bit later for Trauj storytellers; while never for Melkoni (not-Greek) or Gerwa (not-Egyptian) magicians. But all characters regardless of culture suffer the mental and physical effects of corruption.

The other problem, from my perspective, is that characters suffer the effects of corruption too quickly, at too few corruption points--6 for the first mental corruption and 9 for the first physical one. They can gain those points pretty quickly. Going on a raid will gain you 1 corruption point + 1 per 100 silver shekels of loot taken. Since a bronze breastplate costs 1500 silver shekels, go on a raid, kill a foe, and take his armor (a very Homeric thing to do) and you have just gained 16 corruption points! That's enough to get the character 3 mental effects, 2 physical ones, and to gain knowledge to 2 Chaotic rituals. Or to give another example, one of the sample adventures includes a Chaotic liquor which, if ingested, can cause 1D6 corruption. Further, at 21 corruption points, a character is thoroughly Chaotic and becomes an NPC. It's just too easy to reach that threshold under the current rules.

I'm not sure what the best fix for this would be. For the second issue, that effects come with too few corruption points, I suppose one could just double or triple the scale used in the game. But that would have other knock-on effects, since there are some rituals, etc. whose outcomes are tied to the corruption level of the target. For the first issue, I think one would have to redo the list of which actions bring corruption, to make it fit better with the models for these fictional societies. Or maybe drop the corruption mechanic entirely.
 
Heroic characters can certainly get themselves in hot water with divinities in the polytheistic stories, but those gods don't divide up neatly into Law vs. Chaos. Gilgamesh's problem is with Ishtar, not some Chaos spirit, and Greek heroes are typically patronized by some Olympian while being opposed by another. And the Jackals' universe seems too dualistic for the Early Hebrew material; Hebrew heroes may offend God and fall into sin, but they aren't corrupted by the Dark Side, so to speak.
Is Jackals perhaps taking inspiration from Zoroastrianism here? Dualism is a core part of the Zoroastrian belief system. Although usually categorised as Light/Dark rather than Law/Chaos but I'm not sure that distinction really matters much. From what I can gather the game is the right kind of timeframe and area (analogous to the right area at least) for a Zoroastrian-like religion.
 
Is Jackals perhaps taking inspiration from Zoroastrianism here? Dualism is a core part of the Zoroastrian belief system. Although usually categorised as Light/Dark rather than Law/Chaos but I'm not sure that distinction really matters much. From what I can gather the game is the right kind of timeframe and area (analogous to the right area at least) for a Zoroastrian-like religion.
I don't think so, at least not explicitly. Zoroastrianism is probably too late (depending on whose chronology you like)--more an Iron Age than a Bronze Age religion. The list of real-world cultures that inspired the different game cultures does not include Persia. The Luathi are Canaan and Israel, the Ger are Middle/New Kingdom Egypt, the Melkoni are Mycenaen Greece, and the Trauj are Desert/Tribal Nomads of the Arabian Peninsula. Vanished cultures include the Keta, who are the Hittites, and the Mouadah (i.e. Chaos kingdom) who are Assyria/Sumer/Babylon. Some non-humans are based on Minoan Greece and the Sea Peoples/Atlantis. Also the beginning of the chapter on 'Running the Game' states that:
The Zaharets, and Kalypsis at large, is a Bronze Age fantasy world heavily influenced by Ancient Near Eastern myths and literature. Here, you will find a world ripe for the heroics of such characters as Gilgamesh, Achilles, David, and Dan'el. If you need more inspiration for adventures in the Zaharets, check out the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Baal Cycles, the Enuma Elish, and the Old Testament books of Judges and Samuel.
 
Well I don't know much about what precursor belief systems influenced Zoroatrianism but, if such a philosophy was going to underpin such an important rules sub-system, you'd think the author would make some reference to them if it was the case. Is it perhaps the case then that Law/Chaos is, given the system's origins, just a nod to RuneQuest's Glorantha?

I've been taking a bit of interest in Jackals for a while now and I think I would be fine with a Law/Chaos split for magic if there was less of an implicit moral judgment along with it. The use of the word "corruption" suggests chaos == evil to me. What is chaos though? It's change and unpredictability. It doesn't have to be evil although it can be. Likewise, Law is stability and order. Law can be evil too if it's maintaining an oppressive status quo or involves coercion and loss of freedom/choice.

It would be interesting to know the writer/designer's influences and intent here.
 
Well I don't know much about what precursor belief systems influenced Zoroatrianism but, if such a philosophy was going to underpin such an important rules sub-system, you'd think the author would make some reference to them if it was the case. Is it perhaps the case then that Law/Chaos is, given the system's origins, just a nod to RuneQuest's Glorantha?

I've been taking a bit of interest in Jackals for a while now and I think I would be fine with a Law/Chaos split for magic if there was less of an implicit moral judgment along with it. The use of the word "corruption" suggests chaos == evil to me. What is chaos though? It's change and unpredictability. It doesn't have to be evil although it can be. Likewise, Law is stability and order. Law can be evil too if it's maintaining an oppressive status quo or involves coercion and loss of freedom/choice.

It would be interesting to know the writer/designer's influences and intent here.
As to Law vs. Chaos, I don't get the feeling that the game is taking a Moorcock-style approach to them, with ultimate Law = stasis and Chaos = constant change. Instead, it is much more a case of good vs. evil. The game seems mainly designed to present a fantasy version of the Ancient Hebrews, despite its invocation of other cultures as well. The game focuses on the Zaharets (not-Levant) and the Luathi (not-Hebrew) culture, and the recently published campaign has been described by the author, Jon-Matthew DeFoggi, as "the unification of Israel under Saul as seen in Samuel. Essentially, the goal of the campaign is to take the Luathi from city states to (hopefully!) a kingdom." He has a degree in Biblical Studies, so I suppose that focus makes sense.

This is what he has said about his main influences for the game in a post on BRP Central:
As for influences and origins—I have a love of fantasy and the ANE world & languages—so I wanted to blend the two for the setting. I also run a lot of Glorantha, so fantasy Bronze Age is in my gaming DNA. Thematic influences for the setting and campaign include: the Baal cycle, the books of Judges and Samuel, Gilgamesh, Homer, the Hittite cycles, and Bakker’s Second Apocalypse.
I've never read any of R. Scott Bakker, but I am familiar with the others.
 
As to Law vs. Chaos, I don't get the feeling that the game is taking a Moorcock-style approach to them, with ultimate Law = stasis and Chaos = constant change. Instead, it is much more a case of good vs. evil. The game seems mainly designed to present a fantasy version of the Ancient Hebrews, despite its invocation of other cultures as well. The game focuses on the Zaharets (not-Levant) and the Luathi (not-Hebrew) culture, and the recently published campaign has been described by the author, Jon-Matthew DeFoggi, as "the unification of Israel under Saul as seen in Samuel. Essentially, the goal of the campaign is to take the Luathi from city states to (hopefully!) a kingdom." He has a degree in Biblical Studies, so I suppose that focus makes sense.
Ah, well that's a shame and, while it doesn't put me off Jackals completely, it does reduce my interest in it. Especially with Mythic Greece and Mythic Babylon books in the works for Mythras.
 
Edit: Moved from the Supplements thread.

Oooh, I want to get this. I have the rules on Kindle, will probably get the hardback for the adventure campaign, but I’ll have to see if it’s got gameable and useable pieces (maps, NPCs, anything liftable) or if it’s just - “Here’s our magnificent Plot Outline that’s never been seen before by Humanity, we leave all the insignificant details that will actually be of use when running this campaign to you.”
 
Hmm, 240 pages, 14 adventures spread out over 9 years. That’s less than 20 pages per adventure, minus any overhead from overviews, etc. Still, you can stuff a lot of adventure in 20 pages, especially if you focus on gameable content. Plus there’s this...
0B0BE087-A6EF-4B5D-B48B-F47448D736D9.jpeg
Serpentmen, you say?
Hmm. I’m getting a “Free Company working in the vast wastes bordering Shem, Stygia, Turan, Khoraja, Khauran, and Koth” vibe. The whole Zuagir/Zamboula/Kuthchemes area.
A3C4E5B3-A5E7-40DC-888C-FC82620E380A.jpeg
 
Corruption plays a pretty big role in Jackals. It basically means movement towards 'the Dark side' so to speak, Chaos and evil. You can accumulate corruption points through various immoral or wrong actions, from tainted things or places, and so on. Gaining corruption can bring knowledge of Chaotic magic (though using this will increase corruption further) but it also has effects on the character's mind and body. Generally, these are pretty negative. The mental ones make pcs more likely to fail or botch certain skill rolls, and when they do, the gm takes over their character temporarily and makes them act in accordance with the mental flaw. Physical corruption is more patent--things like pus-filled buboes growing on the character. Some of these physical corruptions are advantageous--one adds 1D6+1 to Strength, for instance--but others are quite negative, like Flesh to Salt, which increases all damage taken by 3. Characters can shed corruption by engaging in atonement, once per season (i.e. every two adventures, in practice), which will require travel to an appropriate site and (usually) the expenditure of time and money. But the effects of corruption linger 2D6 or 3D6+6 months after atonement, for mental and physical corruption respectively, and if the character ever regains corruption points to the threshold that inflicted the result to begin with, the effects become permanent.

There are some vague or contradictory spots in the corruption rules, but my main issues with them are more general. First, the whole mechanism and the ideas behind it seem, well, a little off for the setting and the stories that are supposed to inspire it. They would be fine in WFRP, or something like that. But the idea that there is a strong battle between Law and Chaos and that Chaos is constantly waiting to corrupt individuals doesn't seem to fit well with the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, or even the earlier books of the Bible that Jackals notes as inspiration. Heroic characters can certainly get themselves in hot water with divinities in the polytheistic stories, but those gods don't divide up neatly into Law vs. Chaos. Gilgamesh's problem is with Ishtar, not some Chaos spirit, and Greek heroes are typically patronized by some Olympian while being opposed by another. And the Jackals' universe seems too dualistic for the Early Hebrew material; Hebrew heroes may offend God and fall into sin, but they aren't corrupted by the Dark Side, so to speak.

This issue carries over into the list of actions that will gain characters corruption points. They include things like banditry, telling a falsehood to a lawful being, theft from lawful sources, and violence against or murdering a lawful being. The problem here is that in societies like Homeric Greece, heroes do these sorts of things all the time (well, maybe not murder, if we distinguish that as a special type of killing). Where would Odysseus be without the ability to lie? And various Homeric heroes are constantly raiding neighboring communities, killing those who oppose them, and carrying off cattle and goods. One would expect a similar ethos from the Trauj, the not-Bedouin of the setting, given the content of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and epics. But any character that used Odysseus or Achilles as role-models would soon be in the depths of corruption in this game.

It is true that the corruption rules have some cultural specificity that make them apply most to the Luathi (the not-Hebrews). One effect of increasing corruption is that it cuts off some types of magic-users from their powers. This happens earliest for Luathi priests of Alwain (not-Jehovah), but soon afterward for Trauj berserks and a bit later for Trauj storytellers; while never for Melkoni (not-Greek) or Gerwa (not-Egyptian) magicians. But all characters regardless of culture suffer the mental and physical effects of corruption.

The other problem, from my perspective, is that characters suffer the effects of corruption too quickly, at too few corruption points--6 for the first mental corruption and 9 for the first physical one. They can gain those points pretty quickly. Going on a raid will gain you 1 corruption point + 1 per 100 silver shekels of loot taken. Since a bronze breastplate costs 1500 silver shekels, go on a raid, kill a foe, and take his armor (a very Homeric thing to do) and you have just gained 16 corruption points! That's enough to get the character 3 mental effects, 2 physical ones, and to gain knowledge to 2 Chaotic rituals. Or to give another example, one of the sample adventures includes a Chaotic liquor which, if ingested, can cause 1D6 corruption. Further, at 21 corruption points, a character is thoroughly Chaotic and becomes an NPC. It's just too easy to reach that threshold under the current rules.

I'm not sure what the best fix for this would be. For the second issue, that effects come with too few corruption points, I suppose one could just double or triple the scale used in the game. But that would have other knock-on effects, since there are some rituals, etc. whose outcomes are tied to the corruption level of the target. For the first issue, I think one would have to redo the list of which actions bring corruption, to make it fit better with the models for these fictional societies. Or maybe drop the corruption mechanic entirely.
First thing I’d do is only have PCs gain corruption for messing with the Outer Dark, or encountering such spells, effects, knowledge, etc. I’m looking at it from a Hyborian Age perspective though.

The great thing about Jackals being d100 is that it’s hackable into Mythras.
 
I finally read through my copy of Jackals this week. There's a fair amount to like about the game, but there are also elements that, frankly, I don't quite understand, and some design choices that seem odd or mistaken to me. P PrivateEye has done a good job of sketching out the system in earlier posts in this thread, so I'm only going to focus on particular issues. I have some interest in running the game, or adapting parts of it to another campaign, so I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions--especially if people can clarify rules or procedures for me. It may seem odd to ask here, but Osprey's Forums seem to focus on their military history books; I couldn't find any threads or posts about Jackals there.

One thing that confuses me a bit are how the rites (i.e. spells) of the hekas (alchemists/sorcerers) work. They don't cast spells, as such, but produce powders, items, etc. with magical powers, which they then deploy. But the rules for rites seem mainly aimed at more traditional approaches to magic-spells you cast that have a duration, etc.--and so it isn't clear how the hekas' rites work.

Take for example their first rite, Powder of Ibn al-Hanef. Here it's clear that the magician, at a cost of 3 Devotion points (i.e. magic points) makes 1D4+1 doses of this powder., presumably in advance and out of combat. The Devotion points are 'reserved' into the powder, and the hekas will not be able to regenerate them until the powder is used, or the caster dismisses the rite. It's also fairly clear what the powder does; it "forces incorporeal spirits into the mortal realm for the duration, which allows the ritualist and their allies to see and harm them with physical weapons. Mechanically, this negates any Protection spirits might possess, as well as rendering them visible. The hekas throws the powder as a ranged attack, up to 3 yards, at a cost of 1 action and 2 clash points. So far so good, but there are some matters left unaddressed in the description:
  • Most importantly, how long does the spirit struck by the powder remain visible? There is clearly some interval, since the description of the rite's effect mentions it, and if the spirit 'saves' versus the spell (so to speak) it lasts only half as long. But how long is it?
  • Can anybody throw the powder, or does it have to be hekas who created it? The fact that it takes both an action and clash points to make the throw suggests the latter, since the clash point loss is said elsewhere to represent the difficulty of concentrating on ritual and the physical world at the same time. But the rite's description is not clear and does not mention that the hekas needs to do anything except throw the powder.
  • How much do the components for the powder cost and are they hard to obtain? The rite description speaks of "lead powders and other esoteric ingredients" but its not clear how much of this powder a hekas could manufacture, or at what cost. The equipment section lists only 'ritualist gear' costing 150 shekels, but this is the same for all magicians, and other types of magic-users will not be using up their 'gear' the way that hekas do.
More generally, since hekas are creating magical objects, how large and elaborate a laboratory do they need to accomplish their goals? How long do the procedures take? Is this something you can do out on an adventure, before entering into the place of danger (rather like putting on armor before descending into the dungeon) or are better facilities and longer periods of time needed?
If you have access to them, take a look at Mythras Animism and creating fetishes, and Mythic Constantinople with how it handles Alchemy and Potions. There’s sure to be lots of BRP supplements or CoC Monographs that can help give you ideas, too.
 
Edit: Moved from the Supplements thread.

Oooh, I want to get this. I have the rules on Kindle, will probably get the hardback for the adventure campaign, but I’ll have to see if it’s got gameable and useable pieces (maps, NPCs, anything liftable) or if it’s just - “Here’s our magnificent Plot Outline that’s never been seen before by Humanity, we leave all the insignificant details that will actually be of use when running this campaign to you.”
I'd be interested to learn what the maps in the campaign, Fall of the Children of Bronze, are like. There are problems with the maps in the core book: sites mentioned in the text that aren't identified, apparently wrong names given to some places on the map, and some other inconsistencies. There is also no scale. The maps are pretty, though.

The author of the game has answered many questions about the rules, including some errata, in this thread on BRP Central. His response is on p. 6.
 
Hmm, 240 pages, 14 adventures spread out over 9 years. That’s less than 20 pages per adventure, minus any overhead from overviews, etc. Still, you can stuff a lot of adventure in 20 pages, especially if you focus on gameable content. Plus there’s this...
View attachment 32449
Serpentmen, you say?
Hmm. I’m getting a “Free Company working in the vast wastes bordering Shem, Stygia, Turan, Khoraja, Khauran, and Koth” vibe. The whole Zuagir/Zamboula/Kuthchemes area.
View attachment 32450
Love the Hyboria map. Where did you find it?
 
A bit late to the discussion, but it's a shame about the closed content and the lack of a free pdf with the purchase of a hardcopy, as Jackals looks like it might have been the alternative to Openquest that I might have liked.
 
A bit late to the discussion, but it's a shame about the closed content and the lack of a free pdf with the purchase of a hardcopy, as Jackals looks like it might have been the alternative to Openquest that I might have liked.
The campaign book arrived here yesterday. Looks great. I can't wait to run this.
 
The campaign book arrived here yesterday. Looks great. I can't wait to run this.
I'd be interested to learn how it goes for you. I was excited by Jackals, but after reading it through I'm not sure I could run it effectively.

A bit late to the discussion, but it's a shame about the closed content and the lack of a free pdf with the purchase of a hardcopy, as Jackals looks like it might have been the alternative to Openquest that I might have liked.
If I understand things correctly, your main difficulty with OpenQuest is that it follows the Runequest ubiquitous magic approach--all or most characters will know some magic, though it tends to be lower-powered than, say, D&D magic. Jackals does give you the option of creating a character who is not a ritualist (i.e. magician), but you don't get a lot of mileage out of doing so, and characters who start off without knowing any magic can learn some through the advancement process. My guess is that most players of the game would pick up magic fairly quickly or start with it.

I don't think Jackals--or at least the Core book--would work that well for a more generic fantasy game. The spells in particular are tied pretty tightly to the setting and its cultures, as are the rules for corruption, gaining patrons, etc.

If you are looking for a D100 game that doesn't assume characters will know magic, you might want to try Renaissance by Cakebread and Walton. It is a Runequest variant originally created for their Clockwork and Chivalry game, focused on the period 1500-1700. There are rules for two types of magic included (alchemy and witchcraft) but there's no presupposition that all or most characters will know any magic. It is focused pretty squarely on Early Modern Europe, though, in terms of material culture like arms and armor. Since the SRD is free on Drivethru it's at least worth a look.
 
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